The Acolyte’s one and only season left a lot of unanswered questions eating away at our brains. We take a look at the most burning ones of them all.
Warning! This article contains spoilers for the first and only season of The Acolyte.
The Acolyte, Disney+’s latest Star Wars series, has officially been cancelled after just one season. The news doesn’t come as a surprise; fans were divided over the ambitious but messy take on a galaxy far, far away. As we noted in our reviews, the series was marketed as a more mature, darker entry into the franchise, but after the first few episodes, that started to feel like a gimmick to lure us in.
As per Deadline’s reporting, few did tune in. The series’ viewership started out strong during its premiere week, but fizzled out in the following weeks as the narrative failed to find its footing. The series reportedly had an eye-watering budget of $180m, which didn’t help its chances of getting renewed either.
We were still hoping for another season, mostly because season 1 of The Acolyte seemed to raise more questions than it ended up answering. Let’s take a look at those questions, shall we?
How were the twins created?
Episode 3 of The Acolyte took us back to Mae and Osha’s childhood. The twins were revealed to be part of a group of space witches on their home planet Brendok. The community is formed of only women, so it begs the question: how were the twins created? In normal circumstances, you do kind of need a bloke for that…
The Force was definitely involved in the conception of Mae and Osha, but it seems that we’ll never find out the specifics. Were all the women in the coven created with the use of the Force? Are there any more Force children out there? Are there more witches hiding in the dark corners of the galaxy?
Episodes 3 and episode 7 were some of the strongest episodes in a wobbly season, precisely because they took us back to Brendok and gave us Jodie Turner-Smith’s Mother Aniseya. We’re certainly hoping that the coven pops up elsewhere in the future.
Will Osha become a Sith?
In the finale of The Acolyte, Mae’s memory of her twin is wiped and Osha leaves with Qimir (Manny Jacinto) to become his apprentice. In fact, this leaves two unanswered questions: will Mae ever regain her memories of Osha and will Osha become a Sith? The trick here is that only two Sith lords can exist at any one time.
Which brings us to our next question…
What’s up with Darth Plagueis?
Many predicted that Darth Plagueis would make an appearance in The Acolyte and perhaps be revealed as Qimir’s master. The fan-favourite Sith lord did indeed lurk in the shadows in the finale, even if it was for just a glimpse of him looking evil and conniving.
If Plagueis is alive and has trained Qimir, where does that leave Osha? She’s gone to learn the ways of the Dark Side (more than she already has) but if she is to become a Sith lord, either Qimir or Plagueis has to die. That’s a bit of a pickle for all involved.
There’s no denying that Osha would be a powerful Sith. She kills Sol with a Force choke, which was one of Qimir’s tests for Osha; she even managed to bleed his lightsaber. She clearly has a way with the Force, not to mention a lot of unprocessed anger from the destruction of her home and family at the hands of the Jedi. It’s just a shame we’ll never see her reach her full, evil potential.
Why was the Kylo Ren theme used?
Episode 5 included the use of the Kylo Ren theme music. Fans went appropriately nuts for it; showrunner Leslye Headland confirmed it had a purpose, but wouldn’t tell us anything more.
“It’s there on purpose, but I can’t tell you why, and I can’t go into what it is,” she told Inverse, adding: “You shall see.”
Well, we won’t see, as it turns out. Many speculated that perhaps Qimir, who doesn’t actually call himself a Sith, could be a Knight Of Ren. The group was mentioned in the sequel trilogy, namely as Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren was part of them, but they’ve largely been absent from other Star Wars media.
What happened between Vernestra and Qimir?
Early on in the series, Jedi master Vernestra Rwoh revealed that a former apprentice had turned evil, implied to be talking about The Master (later revealed to be Qimir) who was training Osha in the ways of the dark side.
This was further confirmed when Qimir took his top off and his back was severely and uniquely scarred. Scars that big could only come from a specific lightsaber, one that behaves almost like a whip. And what kind of a lightsaber does Vernestra use? A whip. Well, a lightsaber that can be turned into a lightwhip.
We know the Jedi can be pretty firm in training their padawans, but to whip them to that extent seems pretty extreme. Again, it poses so many questions that The Acolyte will almost certainly never answer. Was Qimir showing signs of wanting to engage with his dark side? Did he hurt someone? Did he stay out past his bedtime? We need answers.
How much does Yoda know?
Of all The Acolyte questions on fans’ minds, the biggest was how the series would confront the line from The Phantom Menace where Ki-Adi-Mundi explains that the Sith haven’t been seen for a millennia.
To showrunner Leslye Headland’s credit, the series explains why Ki-Adi-Mundi would say this in The Phantom Menace. In the last episode, Vernestra blames all of the events and deaths on Sol, who’s been killed by Osha. Vernestra explains that Sol was to blame for the destruction of Brendok and he simply went mad and killed everyone and killed himself too.
The series ends with Vernestra going to see a familiar-looking green guy. We’re of course talking about Yoda, which leaves us wondering how much the old sage know about the events of Brendok and the emergence of the Sith. Did Vernestra tell him the truth about Osha or continue to blame it on Sol?
We’ll simply never know.
Will any of this matter?
With The Acolyte being a bit of a low point for Star Wars in general, will any of this matter? Will we ever hear of any of these characters again?
It’s not exactly a secret that the entire franchise has been in a bit of a rut, creatively and narratively. The big picture is getting blurrier with each new series and at least some Star Wars fans seem to be growing tired of it. If the characters and events of The Acolyte are never referenced again, we spent hours of our time watching it essentially for nothing. The series wasn’t particularly entertaining – though it has had some defenders. And with the new business model of Star Wars and Marvel – where you have to watch everything to keep up with the narratives – it’s sad to know that The Acolyte might just be dusted under a rug and forgotten about.
The Acolyte left so many unanswered questions, and it seems that Headland and her team were definitely counting on getting renewed for a second season. It’s particularly disappointing to know Darth Plagueis isn’t making an appearance any time soon.
If there are any other questions you were keen to get answers for, please do tell us in the comments – and let us know your best theories, too.
All episodes of The Acolyte are now streaming on Disney+.
